happy Easter

Caden (still with his fever rash above his lip from being so sick last week) posing with his new little mini moopy bunny.



Happy Easter.....♥ ♥ ♥ Paul, Michelle and Caden



ps....this is our weather...colder than Christmas! too funny!

hackers suck!

Two days ago I was cruising the web, answering email, you know, the daily routine...and I was interrupted, left a few windows open connected to the web. Well, withing ten minutes we were under attack from some nameless predator who strives only to wreck other people's things, even livelihoods could be affected. Someone completely hacked my new lap top. I mean I have had this thing for like three weeks. I was so devastated. They locked down everything, right down to the motherboard, basically rendering it a six pound chunk of junk. I thought that I had lost everything again (only a month or so ago my last laptop had a meltdown and I lost all of the info on that one).

Luckily I have a husband who, given a little time, was able to break back in and get it back to normal. When this happened he was really skeptical if he could fix it. He was also swamped with work. We were really fortunate that Paul was home when this was happening and on the network and was able to stop the attack as it preceded onto the rest of the computers on our network. Even though it is just a "thing", I felt so violated, even lost sleep, just because someone, who does not even know who they are attacking, violated us.

So, I just wanted to warn you not to leave your computer with open windows. One day, you may find yourself with a locked down computer or worse, they could take vital info from you.

We are all better now, thankfully.

The Easter bunny decided to make an early Saturday stop at out house, so Paul can enjoy a little Easter celebration before he leaves for South Carolina. We were able to find a second car, and are enjoying having two car payments once again, so he is able to drive down. This saves us tons of money as renting a car is quite costly. Now the only thing left is to find housing (the house we think we are going with is not quite finished) sell half of our furniture, (the house does not have a basement and is about one thousand square feet smaller than our current house), lease our current house (we are not selling it because the economy in Michigan is scary, plus we haven't owned the house long enough to have much equity, and Paul wants to keep it as an asset), Caden to finish kindergarten, pack, have a yard sale, and move in mid-June. Oh boy....wish us luck.

bug is sick....

Caden has been very sick for the last three days. 103 temperature....brought him to urgent care because we were afraid of pneumonia, but they said it was viral. After another talk with his pediatrition today, they said the fever could last one week. ugh. poor little bug, not a way to start Easter break...

spring has sprung!

Spring break officially starts this Friday for Caden. We are thinking that we will be driving down to South Carolina to check out houses. We are all pre-qualified and think we have found a house, but we still are keeping several others in mind. It is difficult to pick a house out without seeing it.

This is a picture of our first possibility. It is on almost an acre of land and is brand new. It has a double deep garage, but we are used to a double garage that is extra deep, we have talked to the builders about the possibility of adding a separate garage with a studio for my ceramic work. We will see. This has been a bit overwhelming for me. This is why there hasn't been much conversation here on this blog these days.

There has been a little crafting though. I received my Lotta Jansdotter book "Simple Sewing"
It is full of pattern, texture and inspiration. I adore everythingLotta. I admire her aesthetic.
I would like to make the roll-up tool case for my ceramic tools, the hat, and, if I get really gutsy (I am not the most experienced seamstress), I would love to make the garden tote to use to put some portable art supplies in.

I also covered a cork board and added a pocket to it. I made a large tin board and a magnetic chalkboard, all of which are in storage for the move to South Carolina. Oh, I was so inspired by this that I made my own out of my favorite fabric, all of which are now in storage too. (the picture below is the work in progress)


I searched all over the area for baker's twine :

but was out of luck, so I ended up dying hemp twine in several colors to use in my packaging of products.



Let's see, Caden had a great school conference. He is progressing great and gets along with everyone. He is such the thoughtful, caring little guy.



Yesterday he made some chalk art of our family (notice Paul is bald, he he), he was very proud of his creation!

Today I have my follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to see if the nerve block series worked. I would say that the shots helped about 40% of my problem with my back, it relieved the radiating nerve pain down my legs, but did not help my SI joint area at all. So it looks like that both above and below my fusion may be deteriorating. It is good that we are getting somewhere though.

Thanks for stopping by, I will try to update at least once a week, please don't give up on this blog! I promise to share some of my ceramic jewelry too, it is on hold for a bit while we are in this transition time between Michigan and South Carolina. I even got a new slab roller! I am so so excited! But, we decided to keep it boxed up until the move is over, :( I guess I will have even more to look forward to. It is just killing me though, seeing my slab roller sitting there in the box, just wanting to get out and be used! But for right now I focusing on trying to finish my patchwork quilted duvet cover so I can work solely on my ceramic once the move is done in June.

See ya'll soon!

Well Paul is off in South Carolina, so far so good. Although we all are a bit discombobulated....

I read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" By Mo Willems (a fantastic book!) to Caden's kindergarten class today. He beemed with delight! It is the small things in life that mean so much, isn't it?

I had my nerve roots injected at the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. I received four injections instead of two, so that was surprising. They seem to be helping. He hit the bone several times during the injection, and I was only given a valium, so I wasn't something I enjoyed to say the least.

I habe been working on a quilted pathwork duvet cover as well as wall organizers, pictures to follow....it is much too dark to take pics right now. I am awaiting the arrival of a tabletop slab maker for my ceramics. This will be so make it much more easy physically for me to roll clay slabs. It will also speed up production. I am thinking of making ceramic magnets also. I have a tiny kiln, so I am limited to small items, but I am not complaining, there are endless things you can make with a hunk of clay, you are only limited by time and imagination!

Well, just a quick update. I will include pics tomorrow or so!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Look what I got in the mail! Artist Amy Rice sent me these lovely gocco prints! I love them! She has a lovely blog too!

Well that was an impromptu blog vacation! Sorry about the lack of interesting events over here. We have been busy dealing with life. Not much art going on for the last few weeks. Everything has come to a stand still as we try to deal with the imminent move to South Carolina. For weeks we did not know the exact location of the Blue Cross position Paul had been hired for. Alas, we now know it is Charleston, South Carolina. He is to go down there next Wednesday. He will be gone for most of the month :(..... This will be a very huge challenge for our family. We are all very close and not used to being apart. It is not fair to take Caden out of school in the middle of the year, so we will be here in Michigan until the end of the school year. We will be able to visit during Spring Break and also we have our first vacation since our honeymoon ten years ago scheduled for May. At the end of May, we will be residing in South Carolina, near the ocean, hopefully soaking up the warm ocean air! As for our house here....we are not selling yet. We may rent it out. That all remains to be seen.


C'mon, who would want to leave this icy wonderland behind? (hehe) Actually, I love the change of seasons, although this has been a particularly long winter....we would love to stay in Michigan, but welcome to upcoming adventure, and look forward to making our home in South Carolina. We have heard such lovely things about the area.

In other news... Caden lost his first tooth on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007! One tooth down, lots to go! He took it really well, not a tear was shed. The tooth fairy traded him a two dollar bill for his tooth. Caden is quite proud of this achievement!


he finally got to put his tooth pillow to work!


Our cross-eyed Siamese, Suki, finally got to come home after four weeks at the vet. She still has cold symptoms, but we think that she has environmental allergies.

Zoe is not too happy that Suki came back....

:)

I also have some shop related news. Paul surprised me by scooping up the domain for buggabu! He had been trying to get it for quite some time, so when it came available he snatched it right up. Right now we are using a free web design service, so it isn't spectacular, but it is all mine. It is under construction, but you are welcome to come and visit: www.buggabu.com ! My satin glazes came in this week, so keep a look out for some finished jewelry and other goodies! In addition, we splurged and used up a lot of our paypal money and bought a digital SLR camera, I cannot wait for it to come and take some better pictures!

Ok, if you made it this far, you deserve a pat on the back! Sorry for the super long winded post. I will be trying to update more often! Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

news.....

The image above is by my new-found ceramic hero Rae Dunn.

Ok, on to the news. I had my appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took one look at my MRI and said that I definitely had a problem with my fusion. It seems that the bone did not grow in my fusion. They had used cadaver bone, and, apparently my body rejected it. After three years there is hardly any bone growth in the fusion. So, basically, that is a failed fusion. He is 99% positive this is what's the problem. I have a special kind of Cat Scan scheduled for tomorrow to confirm the diagnosis. We will find out the results and where we go from there on my next appointment on March 6Th.

In other news, Paul has accepted a position in South Carolina. Yes, South Carolina. It is not set in stone yet. But we are preparing mentally and researching possibilities. Caden and I will stay at out home in Michigan for at least three months. Caden needs to finish kindergarten. We also don't want to put the house up for sale and move our entire life if the job isn't what Paul really wants. There are a couple of opportunities for local employment, and one that would allow for Paul to work from home for three weeks a month and be in Wisconsin for one week a month. So far though, all of the opportunities have been in the Charleston, South Carolina area. We love the ocean and I have heard that there is a lot of interest in art in the area, so it sounds great, we just do not want to risk making a mistake.

So what does this mean? I have no idea. We are just trying to stay afloat here! I have no idea what will happen if I need surgery. I cannot live on the medications I am on for all of my life, if I do, I will have a much shortened life. We love Michigan, especially where we live, on the lake shore. That said, the economy here is struggling, and we struggle along in it, and we are tired of living like this. The business would be successful if the clients could pay there bills, but it is just not happening. We even had a client that paid us in product from his former job as a sales consultant for Hobby Lobby. It is just that way here.

Ok, enough of that! Paul is feeling a little better, but hasn't fully recovered from the pleurisy yet. Caden is great, growing leaps and bounds, right out of all of his pants! :) He is a happy kid and so very intelligent, strong-willed and independent.

It is time for me to go and count the food in the food pantry at church, so that we can fill it up with fresh groceries. Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!


PS. thank you all for the kind comments and emails about my artwork. It really encouraged me! I have been focusing on my ceramic art lately, but overworked the clay yesterday and only produced two pendants. I am trying to create a cup that I had designed, but the clay is not cooperating!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day!

Paul has been ill lately. He has had pain in his chest radiating down his left arm and poor circulation. He has been really cold, not even able to heat up by sitting by the fireplace. He finally ended up going to the ER, kind of convinced he was having a heart attack at age 30. Well, no heart attack, thank goodness. It isn't a re-assurance of his cancer either, thank God again. He has pleurisy. A viral infection of the lining of his lungs, which is quite painful and causes you to breath more shallow, which, in turn, causes his circulation to decrease. Since it is a virus, it has to work its way out naturally. Antibiotics won't work. He is doing better now, especially that he knows what it is. Needless to say we have been even more stressed than usual. This makes this valentine's day even more meaningful, just being aware of our thankfulness to be together and semi-healthy.

Paul's business has been so stressful too. The economy here is awful. Most of his clients are not being their bills, which is so hard on us. In fact, he has stopped work completely with two clients until they pay their bills. Paul has been interviewing for jobs, but it is a competitive market here, due to so many qualified people being unemployed. He also has two job opportunities in Ohio and one in South Carolina. We have been praying for a long long time about Paul leaving the business sector and going into ministry. More and more we feel the push to go into ministry. The South Carolina job is for director of technical services for a church. It is funny how things happen. After another restless night, Paul picked up the bible. Long story short, he opened the lap top and stumbled upon the job in South Carolina, and the Pastor emailed him right away. God works in his time, sometimes it astounds us how quickly things work! We will see. Right now, Paul is at his second interview at another promising prospect. We only have one car now, so the job that he is interviewing for now would be great because we have a good friend that works there and they could carpool. We just hope that something happens soon! If you are so inclined, we would appreciate every prayer!

Ok, onto the Valentine's day celebration. I was greeted with breakfast in bed and Caden wrote valentine's to us (and himself :) on his own. So cute. We have such a loving son. I attempted my first encaustic collage/painting. Encaustic medium is a mixture of beeswax and resin. I was inspired by Amy Ruppel and Meredith Baxter.

The deer symbolize our family. The clouds are maps....button flowers, the deer are etched and filled in with a charcoal pencil.


P+M+R=C (Paul +Michelle +R (our last name and date of marriage) = Caden. The measuring tape I used is vintage from my grandmother's sewing kit that I inherited.


close up on some of the flowers. The hills were made from grouped shades of green punched circles from sheets of scrapbook paper, paint chip samples and magazine paper.

Paul really liked it. He had no idea that I was making it for him. He, of course knew I was making something,( it is difficult to hide the sound of a heat gun triggering the smoke detector!), but he has absolutely no idea that I was making it for him. All and all I am satisfied on how it turned out, I need more practice to be as good as I would like, but for a first try, it is ok.

Happy Valentine's Day!

ps..I found it extremely difficult to photograph the encaustic...it is much brighter in person.

Tooth Fairy Time!

Look everyone! Loose tooth!



Caden has had a slightly loose tooth for a couple of weeks, but it is really progression now. There is a large gap where the adult tooth is pushing through and his baby tooth is really loose.
So, that gave me the inspiration for a tooth fairy pillow. At first Paul wasn't too hip on my idea, he has memories of a white envelope from the tooth fairy, I had a heart shaped strawberry shortcake pillow. So, we had clashing traditions. I came up with a compromise that the gift from the tooth fairy can be put into a white envelope and Caden's tooth can be in the pillow.
I had Caden write the word "tooth" and used carbon paper to transfer it to the linen. I then embroidered it (this is my first time embroidering, so that explains why it is goofy looking, but I think it adds to the look of Caden's writing) I was very inspired by these two nifty crafters.


tooth-shaped tooth fairy pillow.


close-up on the embroidery and the patchwork pocket.


close-up on the "tooth" written by Caden.

I also hand felted a pin cushion using some organic silk and wool that I had laying around. I have read that it is better (keeps needles sharper) if you store your needles in a wool pin cushion. I love how the silk fiber is slightly wavy and shimmers.









.......We also pinched our pennies to go to a "monster jam" this weekend. Caden had seen the commercial on TV and we knew he would love to see the huge monster trucks. It was loud and crowded and fun, just what any five and a half year old thrives on. It is so cold and snowy here, there isn't much to do unless it is inside. We also got to see one of the two in the world "jet quad" which is an ATV set on a jet engine. VERY loud. It shot around the stadium making flames and basically sounded like a jet airplane. Quite interesting, I never even knew about this "monster" truck world.

here are some highlights:
before:

after:

(broken axel)
we were rooting for this guy:



In other news, our kitten, suki, is still sick. We are setting up a visitation time, since we haven't been allowed to see her in three weeks. She has been gone longer than we had her. It is so sad that they allowed a sick cat to be adopted, we are so attached and miss her so, but have no idea when and, now, even if we can get her back. They still do not have a definitive diagnosis, they have just been giving her different doses of antibiotics.

Thankful.

Today I am thankful for just being alive. I am thankful that I went to my regular pharmacy with a new prescription. Had I not, well, I probably would not be talking about it today. My regular doctor prescribed something that has a lethal interaction with one of my ongoing medications. The pharmacist caught it, very luckily. Needless to say, Paul was irate, we went to the doctor's office today and let them know. Wow, certainly got me thinking about mortality. Speaking about medical stuff, I have an appointment on the 20th with my orthopedic surgeon to see if repairing the herniated disc and removing scar tissue around the fusion and the nerve is an option, or if it will cause even more scar tissue and make things worse....we will see....

We have had about two feet of snow in the last few days. Starting this weekend will be five days of below twenty degrees with the nights dropping in the negatives. This is the coldest it has been here in about 12 years.


Paul plowing the driveway, a daily necessity!


I just think the trees are so beautiful when the branches are full of snow.



Suki is still at the shelter, she has to stay there until she is done with her antibiotics and she is given a clean bill of health. I miss her...

I have been busy down in the studio creating my ceramic wares. I have been making "flower buckets"

this hasn't been fired yet. I want them to look like fabric boxes, kinda loose, after the glaze fire I will add ribbon handles or wire handles. I also have been making small embossed tags that can be displayed in multiples. (I use my handmade stamps and antique letterpress for the images). In addition, I have been making small tea light "bags" that can be hung on a nail or set on a table. I have had a lot of breakage lately, because I am trying to make the clay as thin as possible, but it is still fun. I think the challenge makes it exciting. In the mix is also some pendants and even a bracelet. I will update pics when I can. As you can see, I haven't perfected photographing my ceramics, the lighting is horrible down there.


This is a small shoe that I hand crafted. I guess I will use it as a paperweight :) I just made it without thinking, it was just an image stuck in my head....

Tonight we get to bring Caden to a Rain Forest animal performance that they are having at his school. After that, Paul and I will be going out on a date night, the first in quite a while! Yay!
Have a great day!

PS...Happy Birthday Grandpa-lini!

...captains log....

Caden had a blast last Friday at the birthday party. I was so proud of him, he was so well behaved. He is really growing up fast these days. He even brings his very first report card home tomorrow. He is learning how to write a lot more words, too. He regularly write me a note that says "hi mom, I love you". Other than his first name, his first words that he wrote were "mom" and "hi". So cute. He also knows how to write "thank you", he taught himself that phrase, it was on a card that they colored in at Sunday school, he used it as reference and wrote a thank you note to the cat.


poor little suki...

Speaking of our cats...Suki (the new one) has never been healthy sense we adopted her. She sneezes and actually has like a sinus infection and on top of that has diarrhea very badly. The shelter finally agreed to check her out. They have been taking care of her since Saturday. We miss her so much. Even Zoe, our other cat, seems lost for her, she searches the house and meows at night now. It is like she is searching for her buddy. We hope to hear word soon and have her back. Luckily, Zoe did not catch the illness.

Last Thursday I went in for my nerve block. This time I spoke with my regular doctor and he reviewed my last MRI. I guess that my L5-S1 disc has re-herniated...again. This is the third time. The fusion is supposed to limit motion to prevent this from happening. Apparently, it did not. The MD said that my disc must be pretty weak to keep bursting. I made an appointment with my primary care to get a referral to an ortho or my neuro surgeon to see what to do now. At least the MRI gave insight for my nerve block.

progress

Our amaryllis is almost in bloom, just peeking through. It doesn't look like spring here anymore. Winter has come back, we are expecting snow for the next week or so. Once the lake effect snow kicks in, it stays for a while. This has been a really warm winter.

Caden is so excited, he gets to go to a birthday party. This is the first class party that he has been able to attend. And the birthday boy, Chaz, is one of Caden's good friends. It works out great, because the kids do not have school Thursday and Friday.

Paul has been interviewing for lots of jobs. We are madly trying to stay in Michigan, but so many jobs are out of state. Michigan has the worst economy in the US. Wednesday, Paul has a very promising interview, so please, if you can, join us in good thoughts and prayer. Otherwise, we will be forced for Paul to work out of state and live separate. Because of our health issues, it is difficult to get health insurance through our business. Paul has been doing plenty of consulting work, but we are just striving for a stable existence. We don't want to leave our home.

In other news, I did the final glaze fire on my last round of ceramic prototypes.






I had some stain issues, I added more frit, so I think that I have solved that issue. I also have decided that I like a more matte appearance. So, that means more supplies. Hopefully I can order some more glaze this week. There are not any local places that sell glaze. Ugh....the only thing is, with Internet purchases, the shipping is slow and costs a lot. So, when I do order, I am going to get everything I need so that I don't waste anymore shipping. I am getting matte transparent, matte white and four other colors that are included in the package. I am also going to get a thinner gauge high temperature wire. I found that my holes were too small, that combined with shrinkage during firing, caused me to break several pieces when I was taking them off the bead tree post glaze fire. I am also going to work on a couple of matryoshka like (but animal themed) pieces that you can put a tea light in or just keep small trinkets in.

I have another nerve block on Thursday. I get to meet with both my usual doctor and the doctor that is replacing him. We will also discuss what to do (if anything) about my disc that has become re-herniated. I thought that my fusion was supposed to prevent this from happening, but apparently not.

That is enough for now...I think that I have blurted out just about everything going on with us...
sorry for the long post....thanks for stopping by!

putzing along...

I am finaaly getting around to glazing some of the buttons and pendants that I have been making. I ordered mason stain and once it arrived, I realized that I needed to mix it with a "flux" to make it stick. Ugh. I didn't know what to mix it with, so onto the beads of clay yahoo group. Such a helpful group if you are interested in making ceramic art, especially beads. They also have a flickr group. So long story short, I was able to start the expiramenting today. I have found that, for me, I have had to do a lot of expiramenting to find my true niche. I am so excited to get back working with clay. I have decided that we really need a butter dish. So instead of going out to buy one, I am going to create one. Sure it may take me a couple of months (I am pokey), but we have lived this long without one, a couple more months won't hurt! But, I am most excited about a new concept I am working on, "nesting dolls" but in animal for, like a little bird that can open up and you can place little trasures inside etc. I think that, for me, jewelry was limiting me, slowing me down. I love to make jewelry and will continue it, but I want to also make small ornaments, candle sticks, figures etc.


This is a picture of some of my glass collection. I have been trying to imbed the various glass beads and shards into glaze. I have found that some colors work better than others.


These are the next set of expiramental glass imbedded pendants, they are glazed and ready to fire. I will show you all the results later, I am not sure if I am going to fire these separate from the pendants above.

Thanks for stopping by..have a great day!

ceramic doodles...

I worked on a reference sample board of all of my glaze over the holiday break. I made ceramic earthenware tags painted half with one layer of glaze, the other half with three layers of glaze and the bottom with a clear over glaze. I was really surprised at some of the results. It is good that I did that, I think it will save me some tears in the future. A couple of the under glazes actually fired shiny without the over glaze. This seemed to happen in the darker colors. I made some trial ceramic pendants with various glass fused in the clear glaze in the second firing. That was not as successful as I wanted.

Please excuse the horrible picture, but I thought I would give you an idea of what I was talking about. The greens/blues turned out ok, but the darker red glass discolored and muddied. I will need to work on the firing process. I will probably add glass to a third firing and do it at a lower temperature as to not "burn" the glass (I don't know, it is all an experiment, but it is fun though!)

We adopted a nine month old Siamese mix kitten. We named her Suki. She is slightly cross-eyed and has huge pupils, I really wouldn't have noticed she was cross-eyed right away if they wouldn't have listed it on her records. She is so cuddly and affectionate. She has brought out some better traits in our other cat, Zoe. They, amazingly look like twins, except Zoe is long haired and bigger.

This is Zoe, just a couple of minutes ago, attacking the camera cord!


This is Sukie, lounging in the TV cabinet, she is a perfect fit for our family. We were not seriously looking, but she stuck in our heads and we went back to get her three days later, literally seconds before she was going to someone else. She is the first cat that I have had to train no to get on the counter tops, and she has discovered notorious BOB (our boogie-eyed goldfish). She is mischievous, but cute, affectionate, comes when she is called, and fetches!


another Sukie, picture....

Needless to say, Caden is also very happy with the new addition, she likes to play a lot, just like Caden!

Thanks for stopping by, talk to you soon! Have a great weekend!